The Hacksmith: Electric PUBG Buggy

About four years ago, the Hacksmith team started a dune buggy project. This dune buggy was converted to have an electric motor. Due to a blown ESC and a lack of funding, this electric buggy has been sitting in the yard at the Hacksmith facility for the last three years. Thanks to a partnership with PUBG mobile, the old buggy is finally getting an upgrade!

If you haven’t heard of PUBG mobile, it’s a free to play battle royale game where players fight in an open world, and the last person standing wins. The game has become so popular that it has over 30 million daily users. PUBG is a favorite at team Hacksmith, so much so that it’s the only video game that’s been played on the Hacksmith Gaming Channel.

Many people consider this game to be the inspiration for Fortnite, one of the most popular games in the world right now. If you love Fortnite, be sure to check out the Krypton Slicer Sword project on Maker.io!

The buggy in PUBG has two seats, one for the driver and another seat facing backwards that players can shoot from. In this project, the old buggy will be getting a facelift, an extra seat for shooting, and a motor upgrade. See how it’s done in the video below!

How Does it Work?

The first version of the upgraded electric motor had a simple ON/OFF contactor for the 900 amps of current from the batteries that power it, which meant the motor could only be at full power or no power. This ended up being too much torque for the poor chain to handle, and it promptly snapped.

The solution is a DC motor controller that can regulate the current for smooth acceleration. Fortunately, a Navitas TSX3.0 DC motor controller for high-performance golf carts was donated to the cause. It's a 48v 600A controller, which compared to the last one that burnt out, is more powerful, more reliable and even has bluetooth with a mobile app.

Schematic and BOM

More Hacksmith Video Game Projects

Want to see more video game items brought to life? Be sure to check out these projects on Maker.io!